BitcoinDesign/Guide

Custodian definition

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It might be helpful to add a definition of "custodian" or "custodial" to the glossary.

I don't think this is possible because there isn't clarity from regulators and there are many jurisdictions. I also don't think the design guide should weigh in on legal/regulatory matters.

Perhaps instead the design guide should describe the trust spectrum and how different design choices increase or decrease trust in 3rd parties.

Sure, I didn't mean a legal definition. More just a place to define that we're talking about a trusted 3rd party.

In this case, a trusted 3rd party that has the ability to prevent the user from spending their funds.

Lots of nuance here. There can be scenarios where a 3rd party can:

  1. Steal all user funds
  2. Steal newly received funds (with varying windows of time ranging from only real-time payments to weeks or months at a time)
  3. Prevent spending of all user funds
  4. Prevent spending of newly received funds

Turns out we already have a definition here, it's just "custodial" instead of "custodian".

https://bitcoin.design/guide/glossary/wallet/#non-custodial--custodial-wallet